Foodpanda appoints Gautam Balijepalli as its strategy head

Foodpanda has appointed Gautam Balijepalli as its Head of Strategy to lay strategic direction for the company. In his new role, Balijepalli will directly work with the CEO and the leadership.

Before joining Foodpanda, Gautam was a Venture Capital Investor at Ojas Ventures. He is an alumnus of IIT Chennai and London Business School, and is a co-founder couponing and promotions platform CartPerk Technologies. He has also been an investor and mentor to businesses, such as WarmOven, in the food space.

Ola recently announced an investment of Rs 400 crore in Foodpanda India. Ola had bought Foodpanda India from its Germany-based parent Delivery Hero Group in December 2017. Once a prominent player in food delivery business, Foodpanda India lost its ground to players like Swiggy and Zomato. It reported revenues of Rs 62.16 crore for the financial year 2016-2017 (FY 16-17) an increase of 64% from Rs 37.81 crore. Meanwhile, Foodpanda India said that it is working to reduce its losses. For FY16-17, registered a loss of Rs 44.81 crore compared to Rs 142.64 crore in the same year last year.